Welcome to The End
by Lif61
Summary: "The Road So Far" for all the seasons of Supernatural.


**A/N: Written for week 12 of SPN Hiatus Creations 2019 on tumblr.**

**Prompt: The Road So Far**

* * *

"Dad's on a hunting trip, and he hasn't been home in a few days."

* * *

_Carry on my wayward son_

_There'll be peace when you are done_

_Lay your weary head to rest_

_Don't you cry no more_

* * *

**1** It doesn't start the night their mom burns on the ceiling, her blood dripping on little Sammy's head, but it is _a_ start. The demon has already left as John runs to grab the baby, staring in horror at the suffering of his wife. He dumps Sam into the arms of his four-year old, Dean, barks orders at him, and watches as his life burns around him.

And Sam and Dean would never have normal lives, would be robbed of their childhood.

Yellow-Eyes, the thing that killed their mom catches up to them.

Before the truck crashes into them, destroying the Impala, their only home, and injuring some of them beyond repair:

"I'm surprised at you, Sammy. Why didn't you kill it? I thought we saw eye-to-eye on this. Killing this demon comes first - before me, before everything."

Sam had glanced back at Dean, injured. "No, sir, not before everything."

* * *

**2** Their dad is dead. Dean had been dying, the fight with Yellow-Eyes and the truck causing far too much damage to an all-too human body.

John had traded his life for Dean's.

Sam finds him on the hospital room floor.

There is nothing that can be done.

Dean had made a promise to him before his death, to watch out for Sammy, that if he fails… he'll have to kill him.

Sam is taken. Dean finds him.

Sam is stabbed in the back, his spinal cord severed just before he can be reunited in Dean's arms once more.

Dean sells his soul to bring his brother back.

He gets one year.

Together they bring Azazel down, completing their dad's mission. They hope he can rest in peace, and that somehow he'd escaped Hell after the opening of the Devil's Gate, that he is with their mom, and that she is smiling down on them.

But life isn't that kind.

Bobby is with them, had fought with them, had watched the damned souls and demons escape before they'd closed the Gate.

"Hope to hell you boys are ready. 'Cause the war has just begun."

"Well then…" Dean smiles. "We got work to do."

* * *

_Once I rose above the noise and confusion_

_Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion_

_I was soaring ever higher_

_But I flew too high_

_Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man_

_Though my mind could think I still was a mad man_

_I hear the voices when I'm dreamin'_

_I can hear them say_

* * *

**3** Sam's letting Dean enjoy himself. Why shouldn't he? If he fails at this, his brother's got a year left to live. And Dean _is_ enjoying himself. He's lost count of how many times he's gotten laid since he sold his soul. Going to Hell can really put a guy's life on the upswing.

While he gives Sam a thumbs up from the window, about to close the curtains and undress and get it on with the hot chick he's picked up, Sam is stuck in the Impala, researching demon deals. Bobby calls.

Sam's hopeful, but he doesn't receive any new information from him. Just a hunt.

And so the last year of Dean's life begins.

Lilith.

Lilith has Dean's contract.

They find her.

She gets to Dean. He's ripped apart by Hellhounds, a year to the day that Dean sold his soul, on Sam's birthday, May 2nd.

Sam is all alone, a dead brother, and the feel of Lilith's lips against his still tainting him.

Dean is in Hell, hooks in his skin, lightning and screams all around him.

"Help! Somebody help me! _SAM!_"

* * *

**4** Dean is in a coffin. A freakin' coffin. He tries to scream for help, to claw his way out. Eventually he cracks the wood.

His hand pushes up, through splinters, through the earth, reaching air. Digging, pulling himself out, his head finally breaches the surface and he's able to breathe.

Dean gets out onto the ground and lies on his back, not noticing his crude headstone at first, or the trees knocked down in a wide circle all around him.

He's alive.

The angels lock Dean up, let Sam escape, let him kill Lilith. Castiel saves Dean, tries to help him stop Sam.

But they're too late.

The final Seal has been broken.

Lucifer has been set free.

Sam and Dean are in St. Mary's convent, Lilith's and Ruby's dead bodies bloodying the floor, Lucifer's prison opening before them. They grab each other, holding on for dear life.

"Sammy, let's go."

"Dean, he's coming."

* * *

**5** Dean pulls Sam away from the sigil, away from the widening, destroying blast of light. Away from _him_. They run to the doors, but they slam shut.

No way out.

The ringing of Enochian starts up, and both brothers fall to their knees, covering their ears.

This is it.

Then, they're on a plane, safe. And they can see the destruction of the convent from the sky, see the pillar of light reach up, seemingly never-ending.

Lucifer.

The end has come.

The time for battle comes, in Stull Cemetery as everything seems dead and done.

Dean can't let it happen.

He intervenes.

And he gets through to Sam as Sam fights with the Devil in his head.

Chuck writes the end.

Sam's life with Dean flashes before his eyes. All the good. Their laughs, their hugs, them helping each other, playing together as kids, carving their initials into the car, stuffing their toy soldiers into the exhaust vent, pranking each other, and just driving, being in the Impala, being home.

Sam wins.

He re-opens Lucifer's Cage and throws him in, inevitably going with him. Michael attempts to stop him, but he grabs hold of him, determined to not let the Devil out. Michael — and Adam — fall too.

Bobby is dead. Castiel is dead.

Dean is alone, bleeding.

And then, Castiel is alive once more, healing Dean as he kneels where Sammy had fallen in.

Chuck writes "THE END" across his screen, and then he vanishes into the air.

"So, what's it all add up to? It's hard to say. But me, I'd say this was a test for Sam and Dean. And I think they did alright. Up against good, evil, angels, devils, destiny, and God himself, they made their own choice. They chose family. And well, isn't that kinda the whole point? No doubt — endings are hard. But then again… nothing ever really ends, does it?"

* * *

_Carry on my wayward son_

_There'll be peace when you are done_

_Lay your weary head to rest_

_Don't you cry no more_

* * *

**6** Dean wakes up in bed next to Lisa, his alarm going off. He's never had an alarm clock before. Heck, he's wearing his pajamas, which he's never really woken up in when in bed with a woman before. But he hadn't slept with her the night before. Hadn't felt the need to. He's living with her, and her son, Ben.

She grabs his hand and kisses it, something soothing, and normal.

And he starts his day.

Salt on his eggs instead of salt lines by the windows.

Opening the trunk of his truck to pack his tools instead of opening the trunk of his Impala to store weapons.

Hammering a nail into a wall instead of stabbing a vampire.

Sawing a length of wood instead of sawing a monster's head off, blood splattering onto his face, Sam by his side.

Wrenching a panel aside instead of wrenching open a coffin to find a decimated corpse lying inside.

Grabbing a beer to share with his neighbor at a cookout instead of Sam handing him one as he worked on Baby.

Teaching Ben how to work on a car instead of Sam helping him out with the Impala.

A normal life.

But no Sam.

The wall in Sam's mind breaks.

Sam breaks.

During the big spell to open Purgatory, during the eclipse, Raphael is killed, Crowley leaves, and Castiel becomes... something else.

Sam, having managed to get himself there even with the ruined state of his soul, stabs him while he faces Dean, but full of the souls of Purgatory, it does nothing. Castiel smiles, bloody, triumphant, as powerful as a god, transformed.

"I'm your new God. A better one. So you will bow down and profess your love unto me, your Lord. Or I shall destroy you."

* * *

**7** Sam, Dean, and Bobby kneel before Castiel.

Their new God questions their faith, and they attempt to capture him.

Leviathan breaks free, and Castiel dies.

Sam is lost and broken in his own head, but he is not alone, far from it. Lucifer isn't just perched on his shoulder. He's right there beside him, singing in his ear, yelling at him, telling him the world he's in is fake.

That he's still in the Cage.

All he has to do is…

_Bang._

They take the Leviathans down, Castiel stabbing Dick Roman while Dean keeps him occupied.

He's dead, and as his body explodes, Castiel and Dean vanish. Crowley takes Kevin.

For the first time in his life, Sam is utterly and completely alone, with nowhere and no one to turn to.

There's only him.

"You got what you wanted — Dick's dead, saved the world. So I want one little prophet. Sorry, Moose. Wish I could help. You certainly got a lot on your plate right now. It looks like you are well and truly… on your own."

Dean and Castiel are in Purgatory, surrounded by darkness and monsters with glowing red eyes. They'll be torn apart.

"We're in Purgatory? How do we get out?" Dean asks, sizing up their chances of survival. About one percent.

"I'm afraid we're more likely to be ripped to shreds."

"Cas, I think we better—" The fluttering of Cas' wings. Dean looks around, horrified to find that his friend is gone. "Cas!"

* * *

_Masquerading as a man with a reason_

_My charade is the event of the season_

_And if I claim to be a wise man_

_It surely means that I don't know_

_On a stormy sea of moving emotion_

_Tossed about like I'm a ship on the ocean_

_I set a course for winds of fortune_

_But I hear the voices say_

* * *

**8** It's night when Dean returns to Earth, arm hurting, bloody, and filthy. He terrifies some campers, but hardly cares. Humans mean almost nothing to him at this point. He hasn't interacted with them in a year, and he needs to survive. They will too. He steals their bag, and he leaves, continuing his mission of finding Benny's grave and bringing him back.

They'd made it out.

Sam packs his bag in the night, knowing he's doing the right thing. He pets Riot one last time, glances wistfully at Amelia, and he leaves. Time to get to Montana, to let her live her life, to get back to being who he was before he'd run into her. A nobody with no family.

As Sam and Dean capture Crowley, and Sam attempts to finish the final Trial, which will ultimately lead to his death, Metatron uses Castiel to have the angels fall from Heaven.

Dean talks Sam down, as Sam is near death, but closing the Gates of Hell forever is within reach.

Sam collapses, and Dean carries him from the church.

They gaze up as thousands of falling lights fill the sky.

"What's happening?" Sam gasps.

"Angels. They're falling."

* * *

**9** The angels. They fell.

Sam and Dean are in the Impala trying to figure it out. Or at least, Sam is. Something is bothering Dean.

Sam can't figure out what it was.

He asks him.

Sam is dying.

Sam doesn't believe him.

Beeping starts up, and it's incessant.

Sam is lying in a hospital bed, in a coma. Dean sits beside him.

The angels have fallen, and Sam has fallen too.

Dean doesn't know what to do.

Dean — dead.

Sam had been there when he'd been stabbed by Metatron, had been there for his last words — "I'm proud of us" — and he'd been there when he'd drawn his last breath. He'd driven him home, and now he's summoned Crowley.

He doesn't come.

Dean's body lay in his bed, almost as if he will wake up any second, not as if his heart isn't beating, blood not pumping through him, oxygen not being taken into his lungs to enter his bloodstream, those lungs not breathing out the carbon dioxide that is brought to them by the blood cells carrying waste products of food breaking down. Nothing is working anymore. But still, it looks as if he is just asleep, ready to come back to life at any moment.

Crowley is there, a needy tension alight in him. He's worked with Dean, he's hated Dean, he's liked Dean. He might even love Dean. He needs him on his side.

The Mark of Cain burns on Dean's arm.

"Your brother, bless his soul, is summoning me as I speak. Make a deal, bring you back. It's exactly what I was talking about, isn't it? It's all become so… expected. You have to believe me. When I suggested you take on the Mark of Cain, I didn't know this was going to happen. Not really. I mean, I might not have told you the entire truth. But I never lied. I never lied, Dean. That's important. It's fundamental. But… there is one story about Cain that I might have… forgotten to tell you. Apparently, he, too, was willing to accept death, rather than becoming the killer the Mark wanted him to be. So he took his own life with the Blade. He died. Except, as rumor has it, the Mark never quite let go. You can understand why I never spoke of this. Why set hearts aflutter at mere speculation? It wasn't until you summoned me… No, it wasn't truly until you left that cheeseburger uneaten… that I began to let myself believe. Maybe miracles do come true. Listen to me, Dean Winchester, what you're feeling right now — it's not death. It's life — a new kind of life. Open your eyes, Dean. See what I see. Feel what I feel. And let's go take a howl at that moon.

Dean's eyes open and they're black.

* * *

**10** Sam has a demon strung up by a tree. It wasn't hard getting her there. He's an expert at hunting demons these days. He has to be now that he's looking for Crowley and Dean.

He tortures her, her blood and agony satisfying him, but not enough to make him stop his hunt.

Later, in the bunker, Sam looks at the note Dean left him, the four words the only thing he has to make sense of his brother's disappearance etched on a piece of notepad paper: "SAMMY LET ME GO."

But he can't. He just can't.

No one likes Dean's singing. But it's not his problem that they have bad taste and ears that don't work right. He's upset that they all suck, so he fixes that up easy — sex.

He hasn't done anything too bad recently, but he can if he wants to. And he will.

Life as a demon is good.

Sam is on his knees before Dean, Dean with Death's scythe. This is it.

Dean will kill Sam, and Death will take Dean far, far away. The Mark will never hurt anyone ever again.

Sam closes his eyes, pictures of his life spread out before him, ready to die. A tear rolls down his cheek.

Dean swings the scythe…

And kills Death.

Far away, Rowena finishes the spell to remove the Mark from his arm.

And once she's done she curses Castiel.

He stabs Crowley.

Lightning crackles forth from the sky and burns the Mark from Dean's arm. Sam is helpless as his brother cries out in agony. The lightning then shoots up through the ceiling, seemingly taking the Mark with it.

Dean's skin is clear.

"This is good. Dean, this is good," Sam assures as they walk out of the rundown restaurant, handing his brother the keys. "The-the Mark is off your arm. Nothing crazy happened. You get your Baby back."

"Yeah, I'm sure everything's perfectly fine."

Red lightning takes over the sky, and begins to strike the ground.

"What did Death call this?"

"The Darkness."

The ground shakes, black smoke erupts from the earth from multiple sites, shooting up into the sky before touching back down, coiling and building into a massive dome in a field a few miles off.

"Get in the car," Dean orders.

"Yeah."

"Let's go, let's go!"

They get in the vehicle, Dean starts it, and as he backs it up, a rear wheel gets stuck in a ditch. It won't move. They're stuck.

"Dean. Dean!"

Darkness descends.

* * *

_Carry on my wayward son_

_There'll be peace when you are done_

_Lay your weary head to rest_

_Don't you cry no more_

* * *

**11** Dean is surrounded by Darkness, out of the Impala, away from Sam, when a woman appears before him. She's in a dark dress, her brown eyes penetrating him and holding weight, years older than time. She claims he released her.

Dean is unconscious in a field of flowers, Sam is running over to him once he spots him lying on his stomach.

The Darkness is gone.

And It is no longer an it.

It is a She.

God and Amara become entities of Light and Dark, twirling up into the sky together, no longer at war, but now having come to an understanding with one another. A brother and sister in harmony.

And Dean is alive.

Sam doesn't know this. He's back at the bunker, seemingly all alone.

A woman is there.

"We've been watching you, Sam. What you've done. The damage you've caused — archangels, Leviathans, the Darkness, and now, well — the old men have decided enough's enough. I mean, let's face it, Sam. You're just a jumped up hunter playing with things you don't understand and doing more harm than good. Now, where's Dean?"

"Dead," Sam answers resolutely, grief throbbing fresh in him. "Listen, lady, I don't know who the hell you are, or what the hell you want—"

"Stop," she orders, pulling a gun on him.

He steps forward, hands raised. "Put the gun down."

"I said stop."

"You and I both know you're not gonna pull that trigger."

_Bang!_

Dean is outside, somewhere Dark, no longer in the garden where he had been going to sacrifice himself to destroy Amara.

But he has no idea where he is.

"Come on. Where the hell am I?"

A cry starts up. A woman. "Help! Help me!" And soon there's a body and a face that follows, and all Dean can do is stare.

"Mom?"

* * *

**12** Dean talks to his mom. It's something he never thought he'd be able to do again.

It's her.

_It's really her._

And he proves he's Dean, proves it by telling her all about herself, and he smiles at her, and he just wants to be in her arms again. She's so beautiful.

God.

_Mom._

Along a roadside in the middle of nowhere, what looks like an asteroid crashes through a road sign and plummets to Earth, landing beside a truck. Castiel steps out, having returned to rejoin his family.

The woman who took Sam knocks on a man's door, requesting — no, _demanding _— his help. He refuses.

She opens up the trunk.

Sam is inside, tied up, his leg bandaged, but looking to be still bleeding. He's gagged, and he can't scream. He's sweating, and he's struggling. But he's trapped, and he's at the woman's mercy.

Sam is just a job to her, and she will get it done. So she has no mercy.

Sam drags Dean out of Apocalypse World, almost having to fight him as they watch Castiel go after Lucifer. They fall through, and then they wait.

Up in the house Jack is born, and Kelly dies.

Eventually Castiel comes back out of the glowing orange rift, but before they can truly soak in their relief a blade sticks through his chest.

Lucifer has come through.

Castiel is dead.

As Lucifer threatens Sam and Dean, Mary comes to stand by their sides. Courageously, she punches the Devil, and he attempts to push her into the rift. She falls, and pulls him in with her.

Dean collapses beside Castiel's corpse, the angel's wings spread out in the sand.

Sam runs into the house, seeing bloody footprints that grow larger and larger as they walk to the corner of a room. He stands in the doorway, breathing heavy as he's met with the heavy gaze of a golden-eyed being.

This is Jack.

"No! No. No, no, no, no, no."

* * *

_Carry on, you will always remember_

_Carry on, nothing equals the splendor_

_Now your life's no longer empty_

_But surely Heaven waits for you_

* * *

**13** Jack, the Nephilim, _Lucifer's son_, sits in the corner of the room, eyes burning gold as he gazes upon Sam. He calls him _father_. Sam is too stunned to speak. The boy rises.

Dean stares at Castiel's face for what might be the last time now that he will be facing the Devil's spawn, and rises to run into the house to help his brother.

They face down the newborn, the newborn in the body of an adult, and still the boy doesn't understand that Sam is not his father. Sam doesn't know what to do. Dean does. He raises his gun, and he fires. Jack, threatened, screams, his powers rising up in him, and Sam and Dean are lifted into the air by a golden, beating energy. The windows blow out, glass shattering. They're slammed against the wall, and they know no more.

Jack is set loose upon he world.

And he becomes their problem to fix.

Jack is no longer a problem to them. He's family. Lucifer, his father, tries to take him from them. Sam will not let it happen. After Lucifer consumes Jack's Grace, and grabs hold of him to bring him god knows where, Sam grabs hold of this new part of his family, and he is teleported with them, to an abandoned church.

And there, after they're beaten and bruised, they have to make a choice. One of them must kill the other.

Jack chooses.

He proclaims he loves Sam, that he loves all of them.

And then he proceeds to drive the archangel blade into his chest, Sam watching, helpless, Lucifer high on malicious power.

Dean and Castiel are with Michael. Michael's vessel is giving out.

Lucifer will kill Sam and Jack.

Dean knows what he has to do.

Dean arrives at the church, the power of Heaven living within every cell: Michael.

He kills Lucifer.

It's over.

"Is he…?" Jack asks, tentative.

Sam breathes out, as if he can barely believe it, "He… He's dead."

"Holy crap."

"You did it."

"No. No, _we_ did it," Dean insists. "We did it."

Dean begins to grunt and groan, as if he's in pain.

"Dean? Dean!"

"We had a deal!"

He straightens, no longer Dean.

"Michael."

"Thanks for the suit."

* * *

**14** "Ain't it a shame / To be shot down in flames? / Shot—"

Sam switches the Impala's stereo off. He's driving back to the bunker after another hunt, after yet another lead on Dean's whereabouts have been unsuccessful. He was awake the night before, up all day, and now he isn't entirely sure what time it is, but it's dark, and he's driving fast, the road damp from a recent rainfall.

He has to find Dean. He has to.

It's been three weeks.

Three weeks, and it's killing him.

Michael has found another human to converse with: Jamil. He prays to Allah every day. Perhaps he is worthy of his offer, worthy of showing him that not all his work is folly.

All he has to do is answer one question correctly.

What does he want?

He wants peace, love.

Lies.

They're lies.

He cannot give Michael what he wants.

And what Michael wants…

Is a better world.

Chuck — _God_ — kills Jack, their son. And Sam shoots God, expecting death, but in his fury, and pain he misaims, and Sam is now bleeding from his shoulder. God is furious, and he brings vengeance down upon them.

Jack lies dead, his eyes burned out. Their only son no longer with them.

The dead rise from their graves, and they're surrounded.

The sky darkens.

God is a writer, a liar, the mastermind behind their suffering, the torment and torture of their lives.

He is the villain.

He is the bad guy.

And it is the end.

_God was never on your side._

* * *

_Carry on my wayward son_

_There'll be peace when you are done_

_Lay your weary head to rest_

_Don't you cry no more_

* * *

"Story's over. Welcome to The End."


End file.
